Subway Riding
by Romona-Rain
Summary: And so, for many Wednesdays, this was the routine- Annabeth would find Trouble in her seat, they would quarrel, and she would stalk off angrily, her pride damaged and her anger doubled. {MORTAL AU, ONE-SHOT}


**Hello guys! I don't know anything about what I'm going to write, so it might be a bit crazy- I just want to write something, anything, and I don't wanta plot or anything in my way.**

 **Hope you like it (whatever it turns out to be)!**

At first, Annabeth was angry.

Okay, not _angry,_ just really really irritated.

The cause of this irritation: the boy she saw every week on the subway. This boy had black hair, sea-green eyes, and an ever-present, crooked smirk that made her immediately peg him as annoying.

Okay, yeah- it was stereotypical, but she was right- he _was_ annoying.

See, Annabeth and this boy (she had yet to discover his name), had an ongoing…'game', you could say.

Every Wednesday, going to and back home from her college classes, she would ride the subway. Naturally, Annabeth hated the subway (who liked it, really?). It was germy and loud and stuffy, so she tried her hardest to get a seat farthest from her fellow citizens.

Apparently, the boy had the same idea.

So whenever she rode this death trap, she would hurry to the back seat, which was near the rear doors and no one wanted to go there, for they would get slammed into the wall when the train started or stopped.

The thing is, Annabeth would not, because she would attach her bag to the hooks provided next to the seat, and when everyone else went flying, she hung onto that bag with all her might, and it did not fly off the hooks (and neither did she).

She had been doing this for numerous weeks, when she spotted him. He was around her age, and all the boys her age she had been acquainted with were dirtbags, so she doubted he would differ.

He was lounging in _her_ seat- the spot she'd claimed for at least two months!- with his legs crossed lazily, and he, too, had a bag of his own that he was grasping.

"Erm," began Annabeth, crossing her arms but arranging her facial features into less of a scowl. "That's my seat."

The boy (she had decided to dub him as 'Trouble') merely raised an eyebrow an plastered on a smirk.

"No, it's not. You can't just _have_ a seat- this is the freaking subway." He said, and Annabeth narrowed her eyes.

Okay, so he was right- and she couldn't really argue with out sounding like a brat, and Annabeth was anything but.

She settled for a glare that, to her pleasure, caused Trouble to shrink back a few inches. Yet, despite this, he matched her glare with his own, grey eyes piercing some the color of the sea. Determined to out-glare him (no that was not a word, and no, she did not care), she intensified her glare until he looked down.

"Well," she said, her glare never faltering. "I guess that's true. Please excuse me," and with that, she went to grab onto a pole (all the other seats were taken- stupid boy...).

The next Wednesday, it happened again- except this encounter was much more infuriating to Annabeth than the first.

"You again," she spat when she first saw him. Again, Trouble raised his eyebrow, his sea-green eyes alight with poorly concealed amusement.

"Yes, me again. I can see that you're happy to see me," Trouble laughed, and Annabeth clenched her fists, once again sending him a vicious glare. Trouble shrank back once more, but not nearly as much as the first time.

"No," Annabeth growled, causing several of the nearby passengers to inch away from her. "Not really."

Trouble fake pouted, jutting out his lower lip and putting on the famous 'puppy-dog eyes look'. "You don't _like_ me?" He asked "sadly", but his eyes gave away his mirth.

It was actually really cute, but Annabeth refused to budge. "Not necessarily- now what are you doing, sitting in my- I mean...the public's seat?"

Trouble had the audacity to laugh- couldn't he see her blatant anger?

"Well- aren't I part of the public?" He smirked, some of his messy black hair falling into his eyes, hiding the sea-green eyes that spoke of his teasing.

And once again, Annabeth couldn't argue with this statement- not because it was clever, but because it was true.

"Fine," she huffed, and, once again, grabbed onto the nearest pole, trying not to lurch forward when the subway stopped and started.

And so, for many Wednesdays, this was the routine- Annabeth would find Trouble in her seat, they would quarrel, and she would stalk off angrily, her pride damaged and her anger doubled.

She made it her mission to get there before him, because he was so _goddamn_ annoying and it was so _goddamn_ annoying when he took _her_ seat, so it was very pleasing to her when she accomplished this mission.

When Trouble entered and neared the spot, Annabeth even felt more triumphant at the surprise that spread across his face. "Hello," she said, trying to calm her victorious spirit.

"Hey," He said, but, to her disappointment, grinned his lazy grin ( _why aren't you angry you freaking nuisance?_ ) "I see you took it upon yourself to make it here before me."

Annabeth nodded, brushing away some curly strands of blonde that fell into her face and adjusted her bags on her lap.

"Yeah," was all she said.

"Well," Trouble began, and the glint in his eye reappeared. "We'll see about that next time." And with that, he moved away, leaving Annabeth confused, annoyed at his mere presence, and even more determined to get here before him and claim was was rightfully hers ( _Public seat, my ass,_ she inwardly scoffed. _This is between us, boy._ ).

It became what one could call a 'game', between the two- Annabeth would wake even earlier than normal to hurry ahead as few stops before her previous one (the one she had taken before Kelp Head showed up), and would leave class as quickly as possible, just so she could bask in the glory of beating him.

But, of course, Trouble was trying just as hard to come out on top and get the seat, so it made for quite the challenge.

Piper, Annabeth's friend and flatmate, thought it was a cute way to flirt. "You like him," she'd said to Annabeth, munching on a chicken drumstick.

To this accusation, Annabeth would blush furiously and shake her head ("No, he's an annoying idiot with a brain of seaweed- I hate him!"), and it would make for the argument she would have with Trouble on the subway ten times more violent (as if proving to both herself and Piper that she _did not_ have a crush on him).

It was only after a few more months of this race of theirs that she realized he wasn't so bad ("Annoying, yeah," she told Piper, who was playing pokémon with her online opponent. "But not _terrible,_ I guess. He's still Trouble, though.").

It came quite a shock to Annabeth when, twelve weeks after playing the game, she realized she had yet to know Trouble's actual name.

This was the topic of conversation when she bet him once again to the seat.

"Ah, next time," He said, eyeing the area where Annabeth's at.

"Maybe," she rolled her eyes at him, waiting for him to grab the pole before continuing.

"Hey, Trouble," The blonde began, tucking stray strand of hair behind her ear.

"Yeah, Wise Girl?" He said, looking up from his phone. Just as Annabeth had adopted a nickname for him, he'd done the same for her.

"I don't know your actual name," She said, and Trouble nodded thoughtfully.

"I guess that's true."

"Well, aren't you going to tell me it? Or shall I just refer to you as Trouble for the rest of eternity?"

"Planning on doing this for eternity? Man, you mustn't have a busy schedule."

"Shut it and tell me your name you smart ass."

"Fine, gosh. No need to be so freaking rude…" When he waited a few moments after stating this, Annabeth glared at him so he would continue.

"What's your freaking name- it's not that hard to comprehend, Seaweed Brain." Now, this nickname was given to him only after Annabeth saw him reading a book about the ocean ("What the hell? Who the frick reads books about the ocean?"), and it had stuck, along with Kelp Head and Fish Face.

"You're so demanding...Percy. It's Percy Jackson," Trouble- no, _Percy_ , said.

Annabeth nodded and stared out the window, finding nothing else to say.

"Well- what's your name? You can't expect me to just give away all my personal information and allow you to give me none!"

She turned to give him a disbelieving look.

"It's a name- I'm not asking for your life story. And my name is Annabeth, by the way. Annabeth Chase."

Percy grinned. "Ah, what a wonderful name- are there any nicknames that go along with 'Annabeth'?"

Did she mention how annoying he was?

Four days later, they were continuing this 'one piece of information about yourself and I'll tell you one thing about me', and Annabeth had found out that Percy enjoyed the ocean ("Ah, that's why you were reading that book"), his favorite color was blue, he enjoyed playing the drums because he had a lot of violent energy and needed to hit something, he had a little sister- Vivienne, and he hated the color yellow.

Percy had found out similar things to these small facts (she liked the beach but disliked the ocean, too much salt; her favorite color was green; she played no instruments but liked to sing; she had two younger siblings, Bobby and Matthew; she hated the smell of Febreeze), and they were starting to know each other more and more.

They began discussing more than just small facts- he knew that she had ADHD and Dyslexia and that some kids at school made fun of her for it, and she now knew he came from an abusive household.

He knew things about her that not even Piper knew ("My step-mom hates me and my biological mom is in jail for killing a man."), and they'd stopped quarreling and started talking, really talking.

Piper, once convinced she liked him, was now convinced she loved him.

Yeah, okay- so she'd told him her name….and her backstory.

And yeah, okay- he was hot.

But there was no way in hell that Annabeth liked him- let alone _loved_ him ("It's true, Piper- stop laughing...Why are you laughing?!").

 **Weak ending...weak story….But I needed to write, and this was my outlet.**

 **Hope you liked it, and don't forget to review!**

 **~Brynn**


End file.
